The Strand: What year are you, and what are your majors?
Emilie Nero: My name is Emilie Nero. I am in fourth year now, and I’m doing a double major in Biology and Health and Disease.
What is your research?
We’ve all heard of microplastics and how they’re getting into very weird matrices. We’ve heard they’ve been getting into breast milk and blood and all that stuff, but they can also reside in really weird locations, like remote areas such as the Arctic. So, my research was looking at microplastics within fish in the Arctic. We were looking to see if fish were ingesting plastic and then looking to see if plastic was moving from the guts of the fish to their muscle tissue, which is the tissue that people consume.
Why is this important thing to research, and how can this information be used in the future?
The most important thing about the research right now is identifying where the microplastics are and how they get there. Our research when we’re looking at Arctic fish, it was the first time they’ve ever been identified within this monitoring species in the Arctic. And basically, the research is going to be used as a baseline to track and see the different types of plastics that flux throughout the environment within future years. It was basically a baseline monitor and study, which is going to be important for future reference, which we should care about in the future, as things are going to continue to change with the climate changing and plastics continuing to move around.
How did you get this position?
I have always had an affinity for the Arctic, and I was interested in doing dabbling in a little bit of research in my second year. I heard about the ROP [Research Opportunities Program] in my first year—I was looking through, and I saw an ENV posting with the Rochman Lab. I saw that they looked at microplastics in the Arctic, and I said, ‘Oh, I like the Arctic, and microplastics seemed cool.’ I was always interested in contaminant research. I interviewed with grad students there, and I ended up securing the position, so I did a ROP there for my second year, and then I was lucky enough to stay on as a CGCS [Centre for Global Change Science] student throughout the summer. Then I ended up staying on as an EEB397 student in my third year, so I had a lot of opportunities come from the ROP. That ROP connected me with my fourth year research project, so it opened a lot of doors.
What advice do you have for students looking to do research?
Try anything. Whatever you’re interested in, whatever department you’re interested in. Try anything because you don’t just learn about the specific type of research you’re doing, you learn about the research process and what it’s like to be a part of a lab and good lab etiquette and statistical analyses that you might not learn in class. Try anything because it’s going to be an enriching experience. And then if you don’t like it, it’s not for you. But it might be something that you discover you love, and you want to keep doing. You’re at UofT. And UofT is a research-oriented school. So, I would always advise to take hold of that opportunity. Try it for four months, try it for a semester, try it for a year. You learn so much more than you would like in the classroom.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
